The Fall and Rise of a Hero
by Syncogon
Summary: [星游记/Rainbow Sea, but no knowledge of the series is needed] All but those on the most remote of planets know the name Milong, called the greatest hero ever to have lived. All remember the day when he was exposed as a fraud, forced to his knees before faceless enemies. Yet, none know of the critical role a nameless boy played in this story...
1. The Nameless Boy

_"And let none presume on his good fortune..."_ (Oedipus Rex)

* * *

"This is for you," the boy says, holding out a sheet of paper to the green-haired girl. Setting her burden down, she takes a look at the drawing of her, then sniffs and turns away.

"It's a lot uglier than I am," she says bluntly, and the boy's face falls. Before he can say anything, though, the portrait is snatched out of his hands. He looks up to see the girl carefully folding and tucking away the fragile piece of paper, and he can't help but grin.

"One day," he says thoughtfully, leaning back on the log he's sitting on, "one day, when we're free, I think I want to become an artist." He tilts his head up to peer through the trees at the sky, swinging his legs as comfortably as he can with the thick metal cuffs on them. He does his best to ignore the harsh jangling of the chain connecting them. "And I'd draw all the beautiful things in the world that we've never been able to see, for all the kids out there like us."

"One day…" the girl echoes sadly. She lifts her crate onto the top of a stack taller than she is, mechanically shuffling back to transport another. "We're just a bunch of orphans with no home, no names, no family other than these bandits. What is there in our future, other than to become bandits ourselves?"

"There _is_ a way," the boy says firmly. "There has to be." He stands and walks over to the edge of the clearing. Through the leaves and branches, he can see, in the distance, the great, towering, white walls of the city.

"Look at that," he says. "This city's held up against the bandits for days now. Maybe this'll be the day that they're defeated, and we'll all-"

"Your pitiful self isn't being kept alive to laze around, you know." The boy jerks around, only to be sent sprawling to the ground with a kick to the stomach. He lies there, gasping for breath, as the fearsome face of Captain Axio enters his field of vision – scarred jaw, golden teeth, madly twitching eyes.

"That damned city won't be standing much longer," Axio sneers while the boy struggles to his feet. "It'll be gone by tonight, in fact. Our spy has already infiltrated the city."

The words are like a second blow to his stomach. It can't be true- this city can't fall-

Axio cackles madly at the boy's expression and begins to walk away. "None can escape from-"

Call it luck. Coincidence. Intervention from a god above. The stack of crates that the orphans had worked to build up suddenly trembles and collapses, burying the captain underneath.

"Captain! Are you alright?" the other bandits shout, scrambling over to help. The boy looks at them, then toward the city.

This city was the largest one they'd attacked yet. How many lives would be lost if he just stood by and watched the violent takeover…?

"Hey!" The sharp call breaks him out of his thoughts, and he looks over to see the green-haired girl and the other children all staring at him, work temporarily forgotten. "You're not thinking of trying to warn them, are you?" the girl says.

The boy clenches his fists. "The people in the city, they're good people," he says. "I don't want their kids to have to go through lives like ours, unable to do what they like, unable to even remember their own names!" With every word, his legs move faster, until he's half-running, half-galloping away. The chains on his ankles drag on the ground, the thick metal cuffs weighing him down even further, but he doesn't care, he has to get away. "If I make it," he calls over his shoulder, "I'll get them to save all you guys too!"

Behind him, he hears Axio's shout of "Get him!", the words only pushing him to run even faster. If he'd listened more closely, he might have heard the green-haired girl as well.

"Wait! I've tried before, too…"

* * *

It's right there. The city walls loom before him, one of the watchtowers straight ahead. The forest is thinning out. His legs are dying, his lungs are dying, he's dying, but his goal is right in front of him-

-and then there's a crack, a tree branch in front of him, no space or time to avoid it. He trips and crashes to the ground.

No, he's so close to saving so many. He can't stop now. He claws himself forward hand by hand, digging his fingers into the earth.

They're toying with him now, he knows it. He can feel Axio's presence right above him. "You want to be a hero?" he hears the captain scoff, and the next thing the boy knows, there's the snap of bone and searing pain in his left leg. He screams, but even that sound is pathetically weak. "Don't be stupid," Axio continues calmly, lifting a gun.

The sound of a gunshot splits the air, but the boy feels nothing. Twisting his head, he sees Axio stagger back, blood streaming down his shoulder, his gun nowhere in sight.

More gunfire. Squinting upward, the boy can see the soldiers stationed at the watchtower with their guns aimed at the bandits that had chased after him, driving them back into the forest with every shot. Meanwhile, the boy continues dragging himself forward, to the base of the watchtower. A rope is thrown down, and despite the screaming of his arms and fingers the boy holds on tight as he is hauled to the top.

"Spy," he gasps out as the soldiers in the tower help him up. "There's a spy for the bandits in the city…"

* * *

"You'll be all healed soon," says the doctor, gently applying some salve to the various scrapes on the boy's body. His leg is set and in a cast.

The boy opens and closes his mouth a few times. "…Did you find the spy?" he asks as soon as he finds his voice again.

"Don't worry, they will take care of it," the doctor reassures. "As for your friends, we will find some way to rescue them as well." He gestures toward the cuffs around the boy's ankles. "I'll find someone to help take these off for you. In any case, you should rest. You're free now." The doctor smiles kindly and exits the room.

"Thank you," the boy says, still in a daze, still in shock. He's alive.

He's _free_.

The thought takes a while to fully register in his haze-filled mind, but when it does, a wide grin spreads across his face. The city will stand, the citizens will live. How wonderful it feels, being able to help others. He can draw all he wants now…

Something vibrates in his pocket. Odd. He doesn't remember there being anything in there, other than his pencil and mini-sketchbook. Reaching in, he removes a rectangular device of some sort. As he lifts it, its screen flickers to life.

"Nice job," Axio says, mouth twisted into a smirk. "How daring of you. As expected of a child who grew up with us bandits."

"What do you want?" the boy shouts at the device in his hand. "I have nothing to do with you anymore! They'll find your spy before long, and you'll never take the city!"

Axio laughs. "In fact, I think we'll manage just fine. After all, who would expect a little kid that barely escaped from the evil bandits with his life to be their spy?"

It takes a second, but the boy's eyes widen in realization. "Me? The spy?" He scowls at the screen. "What are you talking about? I'm not helping you do anything!"

"Oh really?" The camera zooms out, allowing the boy to see the entire situation. The other children are huddled against a tree, surrounded by three bandits with their guns drawn. In Axio's grip, held by the back of the shirt, is the green-haired girl, a snarl on her face, looking anywhere but the camera.

The boy's blood goes cold. "No! You- Let them go! They had nothing to do with this!"

"In your ankle cuffs is a vial of sleeping gas," Axio says, tossing the green-haired girl to the side with the rest of the children and lifting his own gun. "You have twenty-three minutes to open the gates of this city. If you manage this, no one gets hurt. If you don't, well, the consequences are on you." Laughter, cold and harsh. "I wish you the best of luck!"

The screen goes black.

* * *

_A/N: present tense, whee  
_

_Anyway, first thing I've written in a while, and the longest non-nano thing I've written since... a long time. I'm getting an odd feeling of excitement, going through the process of making a new story, even if it is meh... A review would be greatly appreciated!_

_I was originally going to just leave it like that but no. I will finish this. __Consider it (part of) a belated gift, MO. :D __I have no idea how long it'll be... 5k+, I'd imagine? I do plan to cover Milong's entire backstory (I'd originally planned to do it differently, though, so forgive any awkwardness of wording and such).  
_


	2. The Leaping Flames

_"Power of the body determines everything in the end, and only Might is Right." _(The Once and Future King)

* * *

It's all over quickly, without having ever really begun.

They've had practice, of course, and have developed a certain methodology to use every time. The most skilled in fighting subdue the still-drugged soldiers and gather them in the square at the center of the city. The other bandits and the orphans spread out through the city, raiding the houses for anything and everything of value.

The thought makes the boy sick. His only consolation is that this time, at least, none will get hurt. There would be no new 'recruits' from this city. He clings to the thought like the lifeline that it is – it's all he can do to remain standing.

He has the "privilege" of sitting out this time, watching the soldiers with a few of the other bandits. He watches them awaken, one by one, taking in their surroundings in fear and confusion and despair. He watches as a few of them see him, recognize him, and curse him. He can feel their hateful, accusing gazes, burning him where he stands. He wants to hide, but he can't. He wants to explain, but he can't.

"But why…?" he hears the doctor whisper, on the ground with everyone else who had been in the watchtowers. It's almost more than the boy can bear. His reasoning feels so _weak_ now…

…

"This is why they capture so many children." It's the green-haired girl, approaching him from behind, lugging an oversized sack over her shoulder. The boy jerks at the sound of her voice, but does not turn to look at her. He isn't sure if he can, at this point. "They use our friendships to turn us into their weapons."

"…You knew, then." The accusation is unspoken but undoubtedly present.

"Don't you realize?" the girl says, real emotion in her voice for once. "They would have made you do this one way or another. If not here, then next time, it makes no difference when. This way, at least, you'd have had a single moment in your life where you believed that you were free." She smiles humorlessly. "I guess you could consider it my thanks for your drawing."

She walks on, before the boy has a chance to respond. "…Is that all I'll ever get?" he finally murmurs. "Just a moment in a lifetime?"

…

As always, the world moves too quickly. The boy glimpses, out of the corner of his eye, the arrival of Axio, the last one present, as usual. One of the bandits runs up, says something. Axio's face breaks into a frightening smile, revealing every one of his golden teeth.

The first explosion lingers in the air. Smoke billows upward, rubble falls to the ground. The first flames begin to rear their heads. The soldiers in the square watch with horror and with sadness, with clenched teeth and with watering eyes. This is the city they had loved.

And Axio – he strolls forward leisurely in the stillness that follows, and his next three words stop the boy's heart. "Kill them all."

The first is never anything more than practice, a warm-up.

A second later, the city truly shatters.

The silence is deafening.

…

The boy leaps at Axio, screaming. Liar. Around them, the city burns. The bandits and the soldiers – the remaining soldiers – watch.

Axio casually lifts his leg and sends him skidding across the ground. He can't breathe, his glasses have flown off, the heat is unbearable, the guilt even worse…

"There are two states of being in this world," he hears Axio saying, above the roar of the fires. "You are crushed by others. Or you trample upon others to reach the top."

The boy's glasses are placed back on his nose, with a surprising amount of gentleness. "Open your eyes and watch closely," says Axio. "And be thankful that today, at least, you are not the one being crushed!"

…

"Lift your chin, child," he hears the doctor say, somewhere, sometime, somehow. "We have done our best." The boy knows it's meant to be reassuring, but it's not – faced with the leaping flames, what does it matter, the outcome is still the same…

"That is correct. You have done well."

The fires flare even higher, and onto the scene appears a Hero. Dressed in a suit of yellow. White-framed glasses resting on his forehead. Red hair slicked back. In his hands, a pair of golden nunchucks.

The boy stares and stares as the whispering swells around him. A story, a legend, passed from lips to ears. _The_ best fighter. Revived an entire star system. Defeated seven entire fleets of Checkmate all on his own. A name, as well. Milong.

"You say that the only way to the top is through pushing down others," says Milong. "But what kind of view could you get from a summit like that?"

The bandits listen in fear. The boy, in awe.

"Right now, you have two options." The Hero lifts the nunchucks, sweeps it at the bandits. The firelight gleams off its surface.

Axio spits on the ground, a last act of defiance. The bandits flee.

…

"You're not thinking of staying here, are you?" The green-haired girl is the last one, sparing a glance backward at the boy, who has not moved.

"They'll never forgive you for what you did, you know," she says, with the faintest tinge of sadness. "Let's go." She turns and vanishes, like the others, among the trees.

"I…"

The boy is left alone with his thoughts. He stands, and he thinks, and, with a firm step, he turns to the city.

* * *

_A/N: First, please please review! The goal of this, unlike most of the other things I write, was to make it understandable to everyone and feedback on that would really help! If anything doesn't make sense, ask (even if it is cinemasins-level nitpicky)! Any constructive criticism is welcomed and greatly appreciated!_

_Quick stuff to note:_

_This will be a five-part/chapter story; word count-wise, I'm not sure. This chapter will be the shortest, probably. I swear it gets better; this chapter was rather bleh for various reasons (part of why it took so long to write). _

_To me, the nameless boy is six years old in the first two parts (so don't hate on him for what he does), and eight or nine after the timeskip next chapter. Milong is somewhere in his early twenties._

_Since it's been so long since I last updated, I'd like to take the time and just say RAINBOW SEA SEASON 2 CONFIRMED TO BE IN THE MAKING AFTER 4-YEAR HIATUS; PV PROMISED IN LESS THAN A WEEK; THE CHARS FEATURED IN THIS STORY HAD BETTER MAKE AN APPEARANCE YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE_

_And sorry MO I'm a terrible person five months for not even 1k I swear I'll write faster _


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